Just a few minutes inside of Columbus Park your (physical and cultural) senses will be woken. It’s a small park, customarily frequented by Chinese musicians who perform traditional Chinese songs. You’ll also find a number of groups of people doing tai-chi, and many older Chinese gents playing the traditional Chinese card game of mahjong. Interestingly, Columbus Park is also the converging location of the Five Points (remember Martin Scorsese’s “Gangs of New York?”)

One the most multi-cultural spiritual places in NYC is located in Chinatown. The Church of the Transfiguration was erected in 1801 as a Lutheran congregation. It soon turned Roman Catholic, with the emergence of Irish and Italian families in the area. Today, the church remains intact, and also is considered to cater to one of the largest congregations of Chinese Roman Catholics in the Western World.

The history of Chinatown beings with two landmarks: Quong Yuen Shing General Store and Chinese Theater at Doyers Street. Having opened in 1891, the general store is the longest continuously family-operated store in the area. The store was a place where immigrants could converge and share stories, and where illiterate immigrants could receive assistance in writing to loved ones back home. But two years after 9/11, the store couldn’t continue to function, unable to recover from the damage of the attacks. Today, the spot has reopened as a gift shop. The former Chinese Theater is located at 57 Doyers and was also known as the Chinese Opera House. This was the very first Chinese-language theater in the country east of San Francisco.

There’s one street in Chinatown – beside Canal – that you can’t miss walking down. The narrow, yet colorful Pell Street is lined with 100-plus year-old tenement buildings. With a strong influx of Chinese storefronts, awnings and flags, the stretch has become one the most photographed streets in the city as it personifies Chinatown.